No Posts for Awhile - Lotsa News!

Where do I begin? Well I suppose from where I left off would make sense.

So last week I started playing a little Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet. They were not bad, and I liked the variety. It refreshed my poker eagerness. Then came Sunday. Let me explain.

This past weekend I had Monday and Tuesday off. Some weird holiday for schools in the UK. That's cool, I'll take it! So Sunday night a bunch of teacher friends of the fiancee and me are at their house getting ready to go to a bar. (I dont like bars or clubs very much, but once in awhile I can stand) So one of the girls has a boyfriend and he has told me on numerous occasions his flatmates are big poker players online. The first time I heard this I really wanted to meet them. As we are sitting there, he says they are all currently next door (he lives directly next to his girlfriend) and would I like to go meet them? Hell yes. We walk over and what I see is beautiful. Picture this. Very small living room with three guys who all have laptops in front of them. One is in pajamas, the other two in jeans and t-shirts. Two are three tabling one is playing only one table. There is a 40' tv as well with a dvd on. There are poker magazines on the floor and they are talking about hands they are playing. I am home. Turns out, one of the guys I have played live with before at the Cincinatti Club, once when we were heads up. Really nice guy, and a very good player. I sit down and watch them play. Turns out one of the guys came like 103rd at the 2006 WSOP main event when his AA all in on the flop lost to Jeff Lisandro's straight flush draw. Sick eh? He even has a picture of Lisandro jumping up and down with the flatmate standing behind him in the crowd looking disappointed. Very cool picture, but a painful one for him I can imagine. So we start talking poker sites, hands, tournies etc. Basically then and there I realised how silly playing online poker without rakeback really is. These guys play high stakes 2/4 and beyond. And they make a lot in rakeback. I wouldnt make close to them, but money is money. I always knew rakeback was good, just not that good. The guy who came 103rd in the WSOP, worked out what my rakeback could be, and it was staggering how much money I was losing playing cash on Stars. He then shopped around for me and told me what site I should play. His answer? William Hill. I get 30% rakeback plus I get £5 per hour I play cash up to £25 per month. Very good deal. I had to go with the fiancee but I hope to go back and play with them as I could learn A LOT from those guys. Very nice guys, and very solid players.

So I went back and played Stars for a little while, with the intention of starting up on a new site. So last night I did. I cashed out $800 on Stars leaving myself $300 to play tournies or sats with. I then put $400 on William Hill and started playing. Oh My God. What was I doing on Stars? I played for one hour last night. ONE HOUR, and made $120 playing cash. I started at a .15 - .15 cent table, the lowest they have, with ten dollars. I ran it up to $30 in fifteen minutes. So I took the $20 profit and put it on a .25 - .50 table. I walked away with $120 forty five minutes later. It wasnt the players being terrible, but I was just used to Stars and very solid players and I just outplayed them. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I am getting rakeback at some point each month. I am really excited about it to say the least!

I hope to play a little more this weekend (the future inlaws are visiting for the weekend, so not too much poker will be played)